Simple As That
by citygrl
Summary: A PDLD oneshot


**Author's Note:** So originally I was going to make this a full story, but I've decided that I don't really know where to take it so I'm going to leave it as a one shot. If you have suggestions on how to continue, I'll take them, but I make no promises on continuing. Enjoy.

**GGGG**

**Simple As That**

She was anxious. It didn't matter that they had known each other for two years and dating for close to one. Just the thought of seeing him made her squirm. Trying to ignore the fact that she still had another three hours until she would actually see him, Rory recalled when they had first met.

"_So, who's the roommate kid?" Lorelai asked as she followed Rory into her dorm room._

"_Don't know. She's not here yet." Rory walked into the room which was marked hers and looked around. At first she was upset when her grandparents insisted she get a dorm room where she could have her own bedroom but now it wasn't looking too bad. Rory had never shared a room before and was happy she wouldn't have to cut back on any of her stuff, most importantly her library. _

_She and Lorelai spent the rest of the day moving all of her stuff in. Lorelai made several trips to the store as she saw the things that other kids had that she thought Rory should have as well. Of course Rory told her mother these extra things weren't necessary but Lorelai insisted that she would be a bad mother if she didn't go back to the store. Lorelai ended up spending the night with Rory, finding a way to get all the girls on the floor to bond. Rory's roommate had yet to appear and Rory had no interest in spending her first night in college by herself. _

_It was three days later before the other girl showed up. Rory had just taken a shower and gotten dressed in loose pants and a tank top. She was singing and dancing in her room with the door open, her hair still in a towel. At the moment the song was _Build Me Up Buttercup by The Temptations. _While it wasn't her typical music choice, it was good to sing along to. As the song switched to _ABC by The Jackson 5 _she heard clapping and whistling_. _Shocked, she screamed and turned towards the direction of the noise. Standing inside the doorway were three guys around her age, maybe a year older, with big smiles on their face. _

"_Let me through! Colin! MOVE!" A girl's voice came out from somewhere behind the guys. Finally she managed to push herself through and smile at Rory. "Sorry, they dropped my stuff in the doorway when they heard you. I didn't have enough time to put my bag down and beat them inside."_

_Rory just looked at the four of them in shock. She was still trying to grasp the situation in front of her. It had taken this girl so long to show up Rory wasn't even sure she was getting a suitemate. _

"_Why isn't she saying anything?" The blonde boy asked._

"_Maybe she only responds to song," the tall one said. He had an Australian accent. "Hello, I love you won't you tell me your name?" He sang slightly off key. The other brunette hit him. _

"_I'm Stephanie Masters, your roommate." The blonde girl held her hand out and Rory immediately shook it, remembering all the things her grandmother had told her._

"_Rory Gilmore," Rory said hoarsely. At that exact moment her cell phone rang and Rory reached for it like a lifeline. "I love you," she said without even looking at who was on the phone._

"_Well that's always nice to hear," her father's voice answered back._

"_Where are you?" She sat down on her bed, bouncing slightly._

"_Looking for the best place to get you some coffee."_

"_Oh! By the library! Mom and I checked them all out."_

_He laughed. "How did you and your mother find this out already?"_

"_We have a gift," Rory said with a smile. _

"_One or two?"_

"_Definitely two."_

"_Uh-oh, roommate finally show up?"_

"_With guests," Rory told him._

"_Really? Anyone I need to intimidate?"_

"_Yes please." Rory knew that they could all hear the conversation and she didn't care; the look on the boy's faces was priceless._

"_I'll be there soon."_

"_I'll leave the door open," Rory told him, closing her phone and looking back at the others. _

"_Anything happen these first couple of days?" Stephanie asked her. _

"_Um, well you know, besides that whole orientation week stuff nothing too much."_

"_Thank god! I can't stand that crap! It's not as if I haven't been dragged around this stupid campus all my life."_

"_Legacy?" Rory asked her while pulling the towel off of her head and shaking her damp hair out before running her fingers through the few tangles making a face as she pulled at them_

"_You are too, right? I mean, you're related to Emily and Richard, aren't you?" Stephanie asked her, the boys actually being quiet._

_Rory nodded. "I didn't come here because of that actually. I'm legacy at Princeton as well."_

"_Really?"_

"_Yeah. My dad's side of the family has all been there while mom's has stuck to Yale." Rory told her. This time she moved to the other side of the room and started digging through the closet. While she was doing that Rory was muttering to herself about letting her mother put things away._

"_Everything okay over there pet?" Finn's voice resonated the air with his soft accent._

"_Just fine," Rory answered him, head still in the closet, "I'm just never going to let my mom organize anything in my room again! It's unbelievable!" She started throwing things out of her closet across the room leaving the others to duck as a shoe came flying in their direction. _

"_Rory?" A man's voice came from the common room causing everyone but Rory to turn around. _

"_Can you look in the oven for my sneaker Dad?" Rory moved her head out of the closet slightly so her father could hear her. _

"_Found it!" Christopher called out, looking warily at the teenagers standing inside of his daughter's room giving them both strange looks. "Here you go kiddo," he handed her the shoe and gave her a funny look. "Now I know that you're my daughter and more your mother's twin but really, it's not like it was raining yesterday or anything, why in the world was your shoe in the oven?" He was watching her tie her tennis shoes with a smile on his face._

_Rory shrugged. "No clue." She stood up and started combing the room for her purse which she found with much more ease then her shoe. "Oh! I know! I was walking around and came back here, talking to mom on the phone…"_

"_Say no more," he interrupted her with a laugh._

"_We were talking on the phone," Rory continued as if she never heard him, "and I was exhausted. I went into the kitchen to start up Gil and took one of my shoes off. I was searching for something that mom claimed she put in the oven because she didn't know a better place for it and had my shoe in my hand. I must have put the shoe inside when Gil finished and I poured myself a mug."_

"_What did your mother claim she had placed in the oven?" Chris was used to both the insanely fast pace the Gilmore girls spoke in as well as the ridiculous things they did—particularly when coffee was involved. It was hilarious to look at the faces of her new roommate and the girl's friends—obviously they were taken aback. _

"_Oh, something about Pop Tarts or marshmallows or something like that…"_

"_Something that will rot your teeth?"_

"_Of course." She finally found everything she needed for her purse and looked up at her father. "Hi Daddy, how are you?" Rory moved towards him and was enveloped in a tight hug, which she returned._

"_I'm good Ror, your coffee is in the kitchen. I put it down to look for your shoe."_

_Rory shook her head at her father for leaving her coffee in the kitchen but pushed past the others to pick it up. "Mmmm," she moaned as she sipped the brew, "Todd was there?" She asked her father as she finished the first cup and moved on to the second._

"_Todd?" He asked her. They had all come into the common room now._

"_The coffee guy."_

"_Well it was a guy, but I didn't ask him his name. Does someone else work there?"_

"_Oh well, Todd's about 5'8", brown hair, hazel eyes, looks about 35. And yes, there is someone else who works there—Ricki. Her coffee is okay, not as strong as I like it…"_

"_The way you like it could kill a normal person," her father pointed out._

"_Not true!" She rebutted._

"_Good argument there kiddo. I'm glad that you're going to get a top notch education although you really can't get that at Yale…"_

_Rory scoffed. "Please, it's not like you loved your time at Princeton." He had taken off a year and then gone back to complete his education and make his parents happy. _

"_Are you going to introduce me to your friends?" Her father asked, turning their attention to the other four in the room._

"_Oh well, you see, I don't really know all of them. I only know Stephanie, my roommate." _

_The blonde smiled at Christopher. "It's nice to meet you Mr—..." She had a society smile on and was about to say Gilmore when Chris interrupted her._

"_Please call me Christopher." Rory went by Gilmore and he didn't know if she wanted people to know that she was a Hayden as well. Though both names held prestige, Hayden tended to mean a little bit more with his father's powerful position. _

"_Stephanie Masters," she introduced herself properly as they shook hands. "These are my friends Logan Huntzberger, Finn Rothschild, and Colin McCrae." The boys each shook Chris' hand and smiled at Rory._

"_We didn't mean to scare you earlier," Colin told Rory._

"_Yes, you did." She smiled at them. "But it's okay, it's nothing my mother wouldn't have done. The only difference is she would have joined in." Rory winked at them and their mouths all dropped._

"_What were you doing?" Chris eyed them all suspiciously._

"_I was singing with my hair in a towel," Rory explained._

"The Temptations?"_ Chris knew that's what she tended to sing along to—guilty pleasure and all that._

"_Yes, but please don't tell anyone! You know what'll happen if word gets out. That goes for you guys too!" Rory looked sternly at the other people in the room. "No one, and I mean NO ONE knows that I listen to _The Temptations_ got it?" They all nodded._

"_So we can tell them that you sing?" Logan asked with a smirk._

"_No one in their right mind is ever going to ask you that!" Rory spoke like he was crazy for even suggesting it. "Now, if you'll excuse me we're off for a father-daughter afternoon. Nice to meet you all, I'm sure I'll see you later!" With that, Rory grabbed her bag and led the way out of the room, waving one last time at the group before closing the door. _

_Several hours later she had gotten back to her room to find a note from Stephanie on her door. Apparently they had all gone to the pub for dinner and drinks and the other girl had invited her along. She had been thinking about it when the phone rang. Lorelai convinced her that she should go, especially if one of these boys had an exotic accent. So 20 minutes later Rory found herself in front of the door to the campus pub, still pondering going inside. _

"_Afraid it'll bite?" A voice said from behind her, causing Rory to jump._

"_Excuse me?" She smiled at the accented tones but changed her features to look more serious as she looked at the "man" behind her._

"_Are you afraid the door will bite love?" He asked her again._

"_Why would you think that?" She asked him, thinking he was insane._

"_You're staring at it awfully hard. You do realize that the fun is happening on the other side, right?" He was watching her carefully._

"_Then what are you doing out here?" She asked him._

"_A little bit of air; besides, it's too loud to talk on the phone in there."_

"_Oh."_

"_So if you're not afraid it'll bite, why don't we go inside, I'll hold your hand and everything." He was teasing her._

"_How do I know _you _won't bite?" She asked him, her eyes sparkling._

_He laughed at her. "Oh kitten, you shouldn't worry about me, I don't bite…hard." _

_She walked through the door he was holding open laughing. He got them both drinks on the way to the table and it was the beginning of the end…_

It was that simple conversation that led her to where she was right now; standing at the airport anxiously awaiting him. They had been separated for the past six weeks and Rory was going crazy. In the year they had been dating they had never been apart so long, he didn't really like it. Usually he took her on his adventures, but this time it couldn't be helped. It was a boys only trip that ended with him spending a week in Australia with his family before returning to The States. Colin and Logan had returned a week earlier with smiles and stories that kept the girls laughing for hours but Rory still missed him.

She shifted her weight from foot to foot, practically bouncing around when she noticed the airport screen now read his flight had officially landed. Rory was as close to the gate as she could get these days—occasionally cursing security measures for not letting her stand _at_ the gate. She had tried, really hard actually, to get up to the gate, but it was an international flight so she got nowhere—not even a mention of both of her names and his name—got the security guard to let her through. Hopefully he wouldn't be in a huge rush to get out to the car he had ordered to bring him back to New Haven and miss her—she was surprising him after all. They had spoken last night on the phone and it had made Rory miss him even more, hearing the excitement in his voice to see her again that she decided just to go to the airport. He could never be unhappy to see her—tired, yes, but unhappy, no. Since Finn had arranged for transportation from the airport, Logan lent her Frank to get her there.

Her mood shifted completely when she saw him coming towards her. He wasn't an easy guy to miss; tall, sculpted, jet-black hair, fantastic green eyes, he was perfect, he was hers AND he was getting closer! Rory wanted to scream and run up to him but she resisted, wanting to see if he caught her waiting for him and what his reaction would be. She wasn't disappointed.

Finn had gotten off the endless flight back to Hartford, the second flight of the trip, with one person on his mind: his girlfriend. They hadn't been apart for this long before and he was surprised by how much he didn't like it. If he had been smart Finn would have booked her on a flight to Australia to meet his family and see his native country but he didn't ask and she didn't suggest it—not that he expected her to. But he had missed her more than he thought he would and was anxious to get his bags and head back to New Haven where he knew she would be. He only hoped that the baggage wouldn't take forever to get to. At least customs hadn't been difficult to get through.

Finn was barely paying attention to his surroundings as he robotically followed the baggage claim signs. He knew he was getting closer because the corner of his eye caught others from his flight being greeted by friends and family; an area that he would have bypassed if he hadn't shifted his eyes around. Happy that he actually looked up, he noticed an anxious looking Rory Gilmore trying not to look overly excited as she waited for him; only she wasn't really looking at him. He followed her gaze and found that she was looking at someone who looked quite similar to him, but was not the real thing. Quietly he made his way over to her, making sure he was behind her to whisper in her ear. "Hi kitten, miss me?"

Rory jumped as she heard Finn's voice from behind her; he was laughing at her now. "What are you doing _there_?"

"You weren't looking at me," he told her. She had turned around to look at him.

"I wasn't?" She looked slightly confused at that.

"He was close, but not the real thing, would you like me to go get him?" Finn started to move but she caught onto his arm.

"Don't you dare!" He was grinning at her and Rory said nothing else as she threw herself in his arms. As he pulled her closer, wrapping himself around her, Rory could imagine nothing better and wondered how she had gone so long without this feeling.

"I missed you pet," he said softly.

"I missed you too," she said without loosening her grip.

"Six weeks is too long."

"Way too long," she agreed, slightly surprised he felt that way. "But you had a good time with the boys? And your family?"

He nodded. "I'm sure Colin and Logan had told you all kinds of stories though, don't believe a word they say!"

Rory laughed. "We'll see about that! Come on, let's get your luggage and go home. They're all waiting." She reluctantly released her hold on him, settling for holding his hands, fingers intertwined, until he moved to wrap an arm around her waist and bring her closer to his side. _This_ was perfect. _This _is what had been missing for the past six weeks—for **both**of them.


End file.
